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The Dyadic Impact of Psychopathy and Neuroticism: An Exploration of Intimate Partner Violence

(PS10-A21) The Dyadic Impact of Psychopathy and Neuroticism: an Exploration of Intimate Partner Violence

Saturday, November 19, 2022

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST

Location: Westside Ballroom, 5th Floor

Author(s)

HR

HyeRim Ryu, M.S.

Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Student
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
Mount Prospect, Illinois

Co-Author(s)

GB

George Bate, M.S.

Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Student
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
Glenview, Illinois
DK

David S. Kosson, Ph.D.

Primary Investigator
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
North Chicago, Illinois
GM

Genesis Martinez, B.A.

Research Assistant/Graduate Student
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
North Chicago, Illinois
Jacinda Lee, M.S.

Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Student
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
Evanston, Illinois
KK

Katherine Keller, B.A.

Research Assistant/Doctoral Student
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
North Chicago, Illinois
SM

Steven A. Miller, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
North Chicago, Illinois
TS

Tamara Sher, Ph.D.

Primary Investigator
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
North Chicago, Illinois

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a prevalent issue that has lifelong consequences. In the U.S., over 43 million women and 38 million men have experienced psychological aggression by an intimate partner with varying degrees of psychological and physical implications (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2021). Given the prevalence of IPV and its impact on individual, relational, and societal functioning, the present study was concerned with examining important psychosocial and relationship issues among female romantic partners of adult inmates. Findings from prior research indicate psychopathy and neuroticism are predictive of perpetration of violence. However, psychopathy and neuroticism have seldom been explored as concurrent predictors of IPV or investigated within the context of a current romantic relationship. As such, we explored whether psychopathy and neuroticism of male and female partners simultaneously predict IPV dyadically. Initial data were collected on 26 male-female dyads (Mage = 26.90, SDage = 6.72). Male partners were incarcerated in a large Midwestern jail at the time of data collection. Psychopathy was measured with the Self-Report Psychopathy (SRP-III). Neuroticism was measured by the neuroticism scale of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R). Intimate partner violence was measured by the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS). An actor partner interdependence model (APIM) was used to evaluate bidirectional effects of psychopathy, neuroticism, and IPV in male and female partners. Results demonstrated that female partners’ perceptions of their male partners’ psychopathy significantly predicts female partners’ perceptions of abuse perpetrated on their male partner, b = .41, p < .01. Specifically, for every one unit increase in females’ SRP-III scores about their male partners, there was a significant increase of .41 in females’ CTS scores about their male partners. Other relationships in the APIM were non-significant. Given the scarcity of research that has directly investigated the impact of neuroticism and psychopathic traits on behavior towards an individual’s romantic partners, the present study is a novel contribution to IPV literature. The finding that most bidirectional relationships among constructs were non-significant implies that experiences of IPV are robust against partners’ neuroticism, which runs counter to previous findings. However, the finding that male psychopathy predicts abuse perpetrated on male partners has potentially notable clinical implications in emphasizing the need for early clinical interventions to prevent the emergence of psychopathy and, potentially, related IPV. The present study also demonstrates the innovative utility of an APIM in investigating bidirectional relationships of psychopathy in male-female dyads. Future research may replicate results from a Bayesian perspective incorporating informative priors to subvert issues with the present study’s small sample size.